Did you ever have someone give you an absolutely perfect dish? And you were going to get that recipe from them? And then, most sadly, they passed away? You remember their face and their laughter. You remember their tomato conserve that was a miracle.
Suzen and I had the pleasure of knowing Jacques Burdick, a wonderful man who once gave us a small jar of his tomato conserve. He smiled when he passed it to us but he did not make a big deal about his gift or boast that this was a treasure. He went home, we tasted, we could not believe.
And we never got around to asking him for the recipe and now we cannot.
So, we’ve searched recipe books and googled and never found anything close. Until now.
The Cheesemonger’s Table is a gorgeous book filled with cheese-oriented recipes. Serious, upscale recipes. I’ll blog about the book itself tomorrow. But very, very importantly, the book has this recipe for Cherry Tomato Jam for cheese. It’s quite close to Jacques’ miracle.
This jam can be made in an hour with very little effort. Physically, it is stunningly beautiful. Taste wise, it’s really, really good. Remember, tomatoes are fruit and all fruit is destined to become jam [or pies, or tarts, or …]
Enjoy this jam with soft white cheese on toasted bread. Triple crème never tasted so good.
The recipe comes from an exceptionally well-trained chef, Chester Hastings, in Los Angles. When he makes this jam, he’s mostly using California cherry tomatoes. When I made this jam, I was using supermarket tomatoes in February in upstate New York. My jam was great, but it was a bit lemony. I would suggest that when you make it, do some taste tests along the way, before and during the addition of the lemon juice to reach the flavor balance you like.
The yield stated in the recipe is 1 ½ cups. I got just over 1 cup. I think it’s a matter of the juiciness of the tomatoes and how much mass is lost when you take the skins off.
If you don’t get enough, just make more. All that you are doing is letting tomatoes fulfill their culinary destiny. It’s kinda religious. It’s definitely delicious.
Cherry Tomato Jam
Yield: 1 ½ cups
Ingredients:
2 cups [340 grams] cherry or grape tomatoes
¾ cup [150 grams] sugar
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Preparation:
Heat the oven to 350°F.
Cut the tomatoes in half and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for about 15 minutes to loosen the skins. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and let cool slightly before carefully peeling away the skins.
Place the tomatoes and the sugar in sauce pan over medium heat and gently melt the sugar. Bring to a boil and cook, boiling rapidly for 5 to 7 minutes, or until thick and syrupy. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and rosemary.
Transfer to a clean, sterilized jar and seal well. The jam can be kept refrigerated for 2 weeks, though I doubt it will last that long.
“There is an open jam jar in front of you. Your spoon is grape colored. And so is your lower lip. You obviously have a problem.” She began to leave the kitchen indignantly.
“Wait,” I said. I held open the cookbook and showed her the page. “Quality control,” I said. “Can’t use bad jam.”
“Alright. I apologize. Don’t screw up the cookies.” She left. I baked.
You might know these cookies by another name: thumbprint. This is a soft buttery cookie baked in mounds with an indentation on top filled with jam. Author Jennie Schacht of Farmers’ Market Desserts has renamed them here for a good reason: these cookies are a delightful way to spotlight the jams and jellies that dot the rows of your local farmers’ market.
The recipe below is easy to do and has as many flavor possibilities as you have jams and jellies in your pantry. We used some homemade Concord grape jelly, and then, for contrast used a hot pepper jelly from Beth’s Farm Kitchen. Beth’s products, available in the Northeast, are delectable. And, the “hotness” of her sizzling jelly was muted by the baking process. We ended up with very sweet, yet peppery cookies.
This cookbook, Farmers’ Market Desserts, is a new gem for the fall. Suzen and I will be testing and blogging out of it for the duration of fall here. The best thing about this book is that it uses farmers’ market ingredients in some very new and delicious ways. So, you won’t find chocolate cake recipes in this book. You will find Ginger-Pear Skillet Cake, Grilled Fig Sundaes with Balsamic Fudge, Mojito Melon Balls, and Individual Apple-Pear Crisps. If you shop at a farmers’ market, then here is how to take home those lovely fruits and use them in ways you’ve never imagined.
Market Jam Gems
Yield: about 60 bite-size cookies
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups [2 ½ sticks] unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
½ cup jam, jelly preserves or fruit spread, strained, if necessary to remove seeds or large pieces of fruit.
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F with one rack in the upper third and one rack in the lower third. Line two or four baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a handheld mixer), beat together the butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Mix in the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well and stopping and scraping down the bowl after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. On low speed, add the flour, about 1 cup at a time, and mix just until combined.
Use a melon baller, small ice cream scoop, or a measuring spoon to scoop out a rounded a teaspoon of the dough, and the roll it between floured palms into a ball. Arrange the alls about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. (If you are using four baking sheets, you can form the second batch while the first batch bakes. If you are using two sheets, wait for the pans to cool after baking the first batch before forming the second batch.)
Using a wine cork, the rounded handle tip of a wooden spoon, or your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each ball of dough. Put the jam into a bowl and stir to loosen it. (You may wish to warm it to loosen it further.) Using a ¼-teaspoon measure, fill the indentation generously with the jam. (The jam will shrink a bit as it bakes and cools.)
Bake the cookies two sheets at a time until the cookie edges just begin to color, about 12 minutes, switching the ;pans between the racks and rotating them font to back about halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool on the pans on wire racks for 5 minutes, then, using a spatula, transfer them to the racks to cool completely.
Pack the cooled cookies between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Source: Farmers’ Market Desserts by Jennie Schacht
